The Writing Prompt Boot Camp

StoryFriday: October 23, 2009

The Writer’s Digest #StoryFriday for October 23, 2009. (Thanks to all who participated.)

Tom loved a good scotch with dinner, but on this particular night he would have to pass. On the dinner, not the scotch.

One never passes on Glenliven, you know. However, ignoring that lump of…whatever that was on his plate had him cringing. It wasn’t that he wasn’t hungry, he just couldn’t stomach the idea of eating this dish, which reminded him of that "adventure" he took to Wales last summer where he met. Electra Dawes, a woman who managed to make a mono-brow look sexy.

It was Electra who introduced Tom to his young bride Gail, and Tom was lucky he didn’t marry Gail for her culinary skills. Tonight’s dinner was to be special, It was their first anniversary. Gail planned it all, a night of dinner, dancing, and death.

Tom pounds his fist on the table, and his drink trembles. "What the hell is this shit Gail, you trying to kill me".

A cool breeze rolled in through the open window behind Tom. The smell of the scotch reached his nose, but turned his stomach.

"Honey," Gail called from the kitchen, "Don’t be silly. Just eat! You’re wasting away in front of me."

Tom’s head was spinning, his mind flashed from Wales, to Electra, then to this shit his wife made. What was happening?

The slab of cooked flesh smelled peculiar to him so he took a swig of the scotch to dull his taste buds. Thoughts of Electra …

Tom’s cell phone rang and he cringed, as usual. Then his stomach dropped. It was her. His hand shaking, Tom dropped the phone on the floor instead of answering it. "If I don’t see it, it’s not there." Gail ran over to pick it up and heard Electra’s sultry voice. "Tom, what happened last night? I waited at the hotel for you?"

Gail listened silently, gently closed the phone, and looked lovingly at Tom. "tsk,tsk, tsk, wrong number again Tom", Gail said. His cell now in her pocket, she had her back turned to him and lingered over the drink. "Honey, I made it a double." Tom looked up at Gail from the floor, her face swam in a pool of liquid nothing. His speech slurred, "wha…wha..whaaa." Gail just stared down at him as he lost consciousness, a small smirk at the corners of her lips.

It was moments like this that made her thank God she had installed that secret room in the basement.

Gail sniffed the air, a whiff of burnt ash came from the kitchen. He’d walked straight into her trap, and this time there would be no pulling back, this time she’d get even. As she stood over him twitching, she listened to the voice in her head urging her to …

"Oh dear, my pie," Gail said innocently. She headed to the kitchen, turned and said, "Be right back dear."

A knock sounded on the front door, but Gail was in the kitchen. The doorknob creaked open, and a voice called out, "hello?" Dixie stepped inside the cool house, sighing when she spotted Tom on the floor. Her brother-in-law wasn’t usually this stupid, but he was a sucker for good scotch.

"Gail, couldn’t you wait for me?" said Gail’s brother Marty, who followed in his wife Dixie. Marty turned to Dixie, "Look, booze".

Gail smiled at Marty, "Yes, let me pour you a double." Dixie handed her a glass.

Marty quickly pulled his hand back. "You used the booze, eh?" Dixie ignored him. "What’s it gonna be, are we making meatloaf?"

"Forget the bloody meatloaf already!" Dixie whacked Marty on the head. "Are you going to ask her for it or what?"

"Damn babe, that hurt," Marty said rubbing the back of his head.

"Quit your whining moron, and just ask her," Dixie bellowed.

He looked injured. "Why you have to be such a bitch all the time? I’m hungry and could care less about the bonds."

"Come now, I’ll have none of this bickering in my house," Gail said, as she tapped her foot on the floor in disgust.

Rolling her eyes, Dixie ignored everyone but Gail and said, "I want the sword. We know you have it, and we want it. Now."

Gail asked, "Could you two be dears, and take Tom into the room in the basement, and I’ll warm dinner".

A moment of silence passed.

"You want the bonds and the sword, and I want Tom in the basement," said Gail. "Now get!"

Gail watched Marty lift Tom’s body up off the floor, her mind frantically figuring out a plan. She wasn’t giving up anything. As Gail warmed dinner, and Marty and Dixie dragged Tom to the secret room in the basement, Electra peered through window.

Seeming annoyed, Dixie dropped the large canvas bag she held and knocked Marty in the head again. "Come on. Before he wakes."

Wrapped in canvas, Tom looked like a mummy. Limp, he was too heavy for Marty to carry safely. Marty grabbed his back, "ouch".

In the kitchen, Gail hummed as she sprinkled her secret ingredient over their dinner. She’d lived comfortably her whole life and she wasn’t about to let these people ruin it—not even if they were family. Marty rolled Tom down the stairs. Dixie winced as Tom’s body tumbled like a slinky.

The basement door opened, startling Marty and Dixie. "Gail is always up to something." said Electra.

"I guess that’s Tom that just tumbled down the stairs," said Electra. "He never could control his drinking. Or his women." Stunned, Marty and Dixie just stared in open-mouthed silence. Electra walked past them and up to Gail.

"Got room for one more?"

"Who the hell is that?" Dixie asked.

Marty shrugged, "I dunno."

Gail looked Electra up and down—not with anger in her eye, but lust.

"I can see why Tom kept you a secret, my lovely," Gail purred to Electra. "And I now know who really has the sword." Gail hoped to get all three of them together under her boobie trap. "Come on, just a couple more feet."

Gail came out of her fog, that’s right—Electra had introduced her to Tom! "Why did you call Tom earlier?"

"Well I called to see if he was still alive. Wasn’t sure you’d go through with it after all."

Gail was now enraged, "Go through with it!? Of course I’d go through with it, we planned this for months."

Gail turned toward her dimwit brother and barbie wanna be sister-in-law and said, "Now you do your part and get rid of them Electra".

Electra’s expression turned sexy/sly as she reached over her shoulder and the sound of steel against steel echoed thru the room as she revealed that The Sword that had been hidden in plain sight. She grabbed the ancient Samurai from behind her back. In 2 quick blows two bodies lay decapitated on the floor, mouths agape.

Gail backed up when Electra pointed the kitana in her direction. "Now wait just a damn minute. We’re partners!"

Electra looked stunned as she thought she’d just beheaded Gail.

Gail felt the betrayal insurmountable. "Let’s go have a drink and talk about this."

Electra screamed, "A drink? A drink? You’re crazier than Tom says you are." Gail’s face flushed in fury, and then she saw him. Gail’s eyes went huge as she saw something behind Electra. Tom, canvas sheeting clinging to his clothes, aiming a pistol…

"Howdy, ladies." Tom’s voice sounded like crap. "Miss me?"

Tom takes in Marty and Dixie headless on the floor. "I want my sword back. Now. It belongs to Clan MacLeod and that you ain’t."

Looking like Stephen King’s Carrie on prom night, Gail now turned her attention toward Electra. The point of the kitana still dripping blood, Gail asked Electra, "Any objections to THIS MacLeod keeping the sword?"

Electra knew the brutality of the MacLeods, but never suspected mild mannered Gail belonged to that family. Gail reached forward and ripped off Electra’s sleeve and cleaned off the sword. "So glad to have your permission."

The sword now sheathed, Gail bent and picked up the gun discarded by Tom. "Move," she ordered, pointing to the cellar.

Electra turned toward the door, just as she did the chandelier fell from the ceiling in a thunderous crash trapping her.

Gails trap had backfired. Lying face down in a massacre of blood, Gail fought to get up. "Stay down Bitch" Electra said, as she dug her 3 inch heels right thru Gail’s temple. The squirming stopped instantly. "MacLeod my ass," she muttered, picking up the sword and gun.

Electra stood tall, hands on hips, and surveyed the carnage. Without thinking, Electra dipped her finger in the apple pie and enjoyed the sweet sensation of victory slide down her throat. She then washed it down with the last bit of Glenliven.

As she set the glass down, Tom’s shoe caught her eye. Belatedly, she remembered how this whole mess started. Damn Gail and her poison, she swore as she collapsed among the carnage she herself had caused.

"Now I’ll never get to spend those bonds or enjoy the power this sword yields."

The sword shimmered a golden crimson, and vanished into nothingness, waiting to be found by the true pure of heart. The End.

UPCOMING BOOT CAMP

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